TOKYO: An official stated on Thursday, April 18, that a Japanese court has rejected the Ainu Indigenous people’s attempt to regain control over salmon river fishing.
It was the first ruling on Indigenous rights about the Ainu people, who historically inhabited areas now in Russia and northern Japan. Japan did not formally recognize the Ainu as Indigenous people until 2019, despite decades of forced assimilation and discrimination against them throughout their history. Regardless of ethnicity, people are generally prohibited from harvesting salmon in rivers by Japan’s law protecting fisheries resources.
According to the plaintiffs, the current situation limits the Ainu people’s ability to fish for salmon unless they receive permission from the governor of Hokkaido to preserve their traditional way of life. They further claimed in a 2020 lawsuit that, as a result of a UN statement 2007, there is a growing global trend toward the recognition of Indigenous rights and identity.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that the presiding court declared that river fishing, even in restricted circumstances, was not their “inherent” right.For centuries, Ainu traded with Japanese people from the mainland, but Japan’s imperial government annexed Ainu lands in 1869 and banned “barbarian” practices like facial tattoos for the community’s women.
Plaintiff organization Raporo Ainu Nation member Hiromasa Sashima stated earlier that the decision was about “fighting to win back rights taken away from our ancestors.
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